Foamed thermoplastic laminates have been used for many years. These laminates were most often formed as a sandwich structure in which the foamed thermoplastic material was enclosed between liner board facings. An example of this construction is a polystyrene foam sheet which has a kraft liner board facing on each side. This laminate has been used by die-cutting and scoring or by pressing the board and applying a resin to fix the pressed shape. However, the kraft liner board facing is a paper material which is not easily molded and which has a tendency to wrinkle during any molding of the laminate structure.
Other efforts have been made to provide a laminate structure which may more easily be molded. A thermoplastic laminate has been formed of a layer of foamed styrene-maleic anhydride polymer to which a thermoplastic polymer skin is bonded. This laminate is moldable without the problems caused by the earlier developed paper facings.
More recent efforts have provided laminate structures formed of molded fiberglass which contains a phenol-formaldehyde polymer as a binder. A rayon scrim is attached to one side of a fiberglass batt and is compression molded to the desired shape